The moving finger writes : Improving learning in college: rethinking literacies across the curriculum, by Roz Ivanic, Richard Edwards, David Barton, Marilyn Martin-Jones, Zoe Fowler, Buddug Hughes, Greg Mannion, Kate Miller, Dandice Satchwell & June Smith [book review]

Book review of: Improving Learning in College: Improving learning in college: rethinking literacies across the curriculum, by Roz Ivanic, Richard Edwards, David Barton, Marilyn Martin-Jones, Zoe Fowler, Buddug Hughes, Greg Mannion, Kate Miller, Dandice Satchwell & June Smith, Routledge, London & New York, 2009 ; isbn: 0415469120. JP Hartley famously wrote: ‘The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there,’ (The Go-Between, 1953), and thus it appears. The way we learned things at school are not the ways of today’s learning. Speaking for a generation whose school years generally managed to avoid sharp bursts of technology, it seems that today’s students (of every cohort) no longer read and write, but scan and text; books are replaced by websites, and pens by keypads. In such an environment of technological prestissimo, the very idea of ‘old-fashioned’ literacy – the three ‘Rs’ of even earlier years - hangs creaking like an old shop sign. But is this actually the case? Are our children in real danger of forgetting how to read and write and communicate in the larger world? Politicians and journalists seeking exposure might argue such is the case, but after reading this book, I would suggest perhaps not.